History Shorts: snippets of local history

Is this a surprising change of use for a Victorian building? An insight into how Oxford once managed its water supplies... View this post on Instagram The South Oxford community centre in Lake Street, #Oxford was originally built in 1856 as a pumping station for the city waterworks. Water was pumped from the neighbouring Hinksey reservoir, itself only formed in 1850 as a result of gravel extraction for an extension of the railway from Oxford to Banbury. The waterworks were in operation until 1934. Its cooling lake is now the boating lake in Hinksey park and filter beds were converted to swimming pools. #history #urbanhistory #Victorian #architecture A post shared by bishib70 (@landscapeandhistory) on Oct 14, 2019 at 12:48pm PDT Lake Street front: See the OS 25 inch map of the area from 1898.

I recently enjoyed a tour of the former Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast so was interested to see the following sketches from Sir Charles Lanyon when they appeared among recent Flickr uploads from PRONI. The prison opened in 1846 and only closed in 1996, having fallen into considerable disrepair. The building, which has 'accommodated' in one form or another some of Ireland's most famous politicians, now has Grade A listed status. Here's one of my own photos from the yard just before a cloud burst! Hopefully I'll sort out some more soon, including from inside the tunnel: See more about the gaol, including details of tours

Victorian postbox , a photo by bishib70 on Flickr. One of two Victorian letter boxes I'm aware of in Abingdon. There are also several GR letter boxes around. Just a minor, almost mundane slice of local history!